


It Takes Two to Fan Dance

by donuthead



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Alternate Universe - Small Town, Boy Love, Boyfriends, Crossdressing, Dancing, Derogatory Language, Explicit Language, Fairies, Fairy Tale Elements, Fluff, Fluffy, GrimmIchi - Freeform, Japan, Japanese Culture, M/M, Modern Era, No Smut, OOC, Realistic, Small Towns, World Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:20:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28064601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donuthead/pseuds/donuthead
Summary: Grimmjow thought he had seen it all. He had traveled the world. He had experiences that others couldn't even imagine, even in their wildest dreams.But the bright orange hair and crimson-colored fans? That was definitely something new, and certainly something he would remember for the rest of his life, even as the rest became a faded memory.
Relationships: Grimmjow Jaegerjaques/Kurosaki Ichigo
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21





	It Takes Two to Fan Dance

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Yotsudake](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/749316) by signal/Nilo. 



> Some things to know before reading:
> 
> This story is set on a small island in the south of Japan called Iriomote. I did a bit of research about the island, but a lot of the stuff I talk about is made up, so a lot of things won't be accurate
> 
> I was really confused about all the honorifics, so they might change if I forget, and might not be accurate to the ones used in canon. I also don't know a lot about Kurosaki Clinic, so there might be a lot of details/visuals I change/add that aren't accurate to canon, like giving them a backyard.
> 
> Also, even though this is about fan dancing, I pretty much know nothing about it.
> 
> Teen and up for language only

_ “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You’ll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away.” -Jimmie Davis _

“Grimmjow. Grimmjow. Are you listening to me? Grimmjow!”

Salty sea winds blew sticky aquamarine hair straight into his mouth as a large head disrupted his view of the ocean. Grimmjow palmed her face and shoved her out of his line of sight while trying to spit out her hair, drooling saliva all over the ends.

“Jesus Nel, don’t stand so close, I heard you alright.”

“Then explain everything I just said back to me.” 

He groaned in dramatic defeat as he slumped against the metal railings. It was starting to become clear that unless he memorized all of the other’s instructions to her liking, she would not be letting him go. And God knew how strict Nel could be when it came to business. 

Grimmjow buried his face deeper into his arms, and hoped that if he curled up tight enough he might be able to disappear altogether and then the other would finally take her colossal tits out of his face and leave him the fuck alone. Boat rides were hard enough as they were for his stomach, and the rocky waves and stale salt smells did nothing to help.

Unfortunately, Lady Luck decided to elope that day along with his breakfast, because before he could think up a sensible answer to get her off his back, he lurched his upper body over the side of the boat and retched into the ocean. After a couple of minutes of dry heaving and coughing up bile, Grimmjow collapsed on the partially wet deck, and willed the wind to sweep him into the ocean for him to drown.

“Well Grimmjow, I’m waiting for your answer.”

If he had the energy, he would have pitched his friend over the side of the boat to do his drowning for him. There were just two problems: Nel played a very important role in their upcoming project, and he didn’t even have the energy to roll his eyes at her, let alone lift her up and cast her into the ocean to perish (that vision would have to live in the ever-growing collection in his head for now). Not to mention she was also very heavy (but for the sake of his well being, he left that opinion in his mind along with the drowning fantasy in his overflowing stack of private Nel threats and blackmail).

“Leave me alone, Nel.”

“Ha! So you weren’t listening, were you?”

“I just fucking threw up! Of course I wasn’t listening, because I was trying not to cough up half of my fucking organs!”

(In future years, Grimmjow would have remembered himself to have appeared quite intimidating to his counterpart, but having the appearance of a beached Magikarp that had just been clubbed with a folding chair wasn’t exactly scary to a twenty-three year old bombshell, that despite her looks, could easily defeat any challenger, whether with fists, or leather ropes and harnesses. Of course with Grimmjow having only experienced the former of the two.)

“That’s no excuse when our jobs and livelihood are on the line!”

“Yeah, shit like my life doesn’t matter even though I need it to keep my job. Unless you have a camera that works on its own, don’t think you can easily replace me.”

“It’s nice to see you care so much about the company, but just know that out of the sixty applications I received in the last month, over half of them were very promising.”

“Bitch, you said you threw all of those away.”

“Just because I threw all of them away doesn’t mean I didn’t look through them first. There was a very promising one just recently sent from Okayama from a man with the name of Ulquiorra Cifer. Interesting profile and name, kind of looked like someone from that American rock band. What was it called? Kiss, I think. But his looks were certainly fappable if I do say myself, and I’m sure the other women subscribed would be more than happy to agree with me-”

“Nel, for the love of God, shut the fuck up.”

(While Nel wasn’t as easy as the women found in Shinjuku at two in the morning, she certainly wasn’t a saint either. In fact, Grimmjow couldn’t remember the last time they traveled together where she didn’t waste half of her time flirting her way through the entire week. It seemed as if she was attracted to every single male in the entire country, save for Grimmjow himself, who wasn’t sure whether he should be utterly offended or kissing the ground.)

“Does that mean you’re finally willing to listen to what I have to say?”

“Yeah, whatever, as long as it’s not about white-faced bastards with long-ass tongues.”

“You say long tongues like it’s a bad thing.”

“And you speak as if you don’t want me to listen to whatever important information you wanted to discuss with me.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll stop. You’re no fun anyway.”

With an annoyed pout, Nel fished around in her pack and pulled out a small packet which she shoved into Grimmjow’s face, who had now nudged himself into a sitting position. Her voice was strained from having to compete against the billowing winds for so long.

“Ok. We should be arriving at the pier in under an hour, so I need to debrief you as best I can before then.”

Nel fished her own crumpled copy out of her bag and flipped to the front page, gesturing for Grimmjow to do the same.

“As you hopefully already know, we’re currently headed to the south side of Iriomote, as the last big stop of our southern island series. Afterward, we’ll be finishing up with Hateruma and Yonaguni, but since those islands are much smaller, we won’t be spending much time there. Now, we have already visited the larger, more touristy parts of the island, but where we’ll be going next is going to be much different than what we’ve been accustomed to these past few days. This next stop will be a small village called Karakura. Now listen well, because this next part is extremely important. Are you listening?”

“Yeah, just get on with it.”

“Hmph. Well, while I was doing my research, I came across this village through Nnoitra who had visited a few months back, and after surfing the web I found that no other traveling website had done a bit on it, which is perfect because that means that we will be the first ones to write about it and not those mosquito rats from those travel japan websites.”

“Yeah, and what does this have to do with me? It’s just the same as any other village we’ve been to, right?”

“No! Haven’t you been listening to what I’ve been saying? There’s a reason why anyone has yet to write about it. This village is very isolated from the rest of the island, with the only way to get to it is either by ferry on the ocean, by riverboat, or a remote road through the mountainside. The residents have most likely lived there for their entire life. Which means that they aren’t as exposed to pop culture and advanced technology as we are.”

“So you dragged me on this nightmare of a boat ride just to meet a bunch of fucking neanderthals?”

“Wha-? No! What I was trying to say is these people are traditional, not stupid! Just because they don’t have neko cafes and pachinko machines does not make them any less of people than we are. And this is exactly my point, Grimmjow! Your mouth has no filter! You say rude things every third sentence, with no regard of how this could jeopardize everything! You speak like a low life gangster-”

“Oi, what did you say?”

“-and I need you to think about what you say for the next week, because the words that come out of YOUR mouth will determine the potential future of OUR business, ok?”

“Ok yeah, fine. Watch what I say in front of the old ladies.”

A heavy sigh left pink lips as Nel’s shoulders slumped in defeat. She had done all she could, the rest was up to her foul-mouthed companion and his extremely selective memory.

“Well, I would prefer if you would apply that when speaking to everybody, but grandmas are certainly a start. Not a very promising one, but it will have to do for now.”

The soft rustle of denim mixed with the scrape of boots against metal as Nel crouched down to eye level with her blue-haired companion, and squished his clammy face between her two warm hands. 

“You understand how important this is to us, don’t you?”

Grimmjow’s eyes met large gray ones, and he felt himself slowly start to cave. No wonder he found her flirting around so much. No one could say no to such a pleading face like that. 

“Yes, yes, I understand Nel. Now get up so I can rinse out my mouth. Don’t know if you’ve ever puked four hour old natto, but it’s fucking disgusting. Now move.”

“No, actually I have not, and don’t plan on it any time soon.”

Nel flashed Grimmjow a sticky sweet smile along with a light chuckle and stood, bracing herself against the railing of the boat. On her way up, she gave one last tweak to his nose which was met with a scowl, and headed over to the other side of the boat, waving over her shoulder.

“Alright, I know you already know the rest of the protocol, so I’m going to brief Pesche and Dondochakka on everything we just discussed so that way we’re all on the same page. The boat ride should still be another half hour, so go wash up and make yourself look at least adequately presentable.”

If Nel saw the finger flashed her way, she didn’t react, and continued around the side of the boat to her co-writers. Grumbling a long string of obscenities and rubbing his now raw nose, Grimmjow stumbled to the boat’s only restroom while trying his hardest not to fall overboard. After reaching the bathroom and without even bothering to lock the door (they were the only ones aboard the boat, thank god), he collapsed on the toilet seat and smoldered at his very humbling appearance in the mirror’s reflection. Nel was certainly not lying; he looked as terrible as he felt, as if he was rammed by a car and reincarnated, just to suffer all over again. Unfortunately, the only equipment he had at his disposal at the moment was a low-pressure faucet and paper towels, so scrubbing the grime off his face would have to do. He rinsed his mouth of the pungent saliva and unwrapped a generous amount of gum stored in his jacket pocket and furiously chomped through the pieces, the harsh taste of spearmint burning in his nostrils and throat. After one last glance at the cracked mirror, he was pleased to note that he looked Nel’s standard of adequately presentable. His face had colored from a flushed gray to a light tan, his clothes thankfully spared from any vomit, and the only signs of distress were from his wild arctic hair, which he haphazardly combed back into place. Satisfied, he stumbled out the door with about as much grace as a stabbed ballerina, and tripped along the deck to join Nel and her two assistants at the front of the ferry.

“Oh, look who finally decided to join us!”

A low growl surfaced from his throat as she affectionately threw her arm around his shoulder with such a cheerful demeanor it made him nauseous again. He halfheartedly shoved her out of his personal bubble and rested his elbows on the silver railings, letting the wind dishevel his poor attempt at taming his wild hair. When he blinked, the air tickled his long lashes and stung in his eyes. 

“Look guys, we’re practically here!”

Grimmjow blearily strained his eyes against the burning sun, to see a small cove surrounded by lush green trees and jagged boulders. On the left side of the sand was a small wooden pier, and on top of that, was a small girl, who looked like a small dot on the horizon, her arm waving around in a pleasant greeting, which Nel returned just as enthusiastically. Grimmjow fished his personal pocket camera out of his jacket and snapped a few shots of the sandy shore.

“She must be the welcoming guide I was informed about when talking to one of the residents while planning the trip.”

Nel’s words fell on deaf ears, as with every yard the boat sailed closer to shore, the conversation between Pesche and Dondochakka grew more and more animated, the pair leaning as far out over the railings without falling over, as if that extra foot would help them reach the island that much faster. On her other side, Grimmjow had completely disappeared in order to toss out his now insipid wad of gum, which left Nel in an open-ended conversation with herself.

As the ferry closed on the pier, the remaining three on deck returned inside the closed quarters and gathered up whatever belongings they had packed with them for the trip, namely any necessities like clothes and toiletries, along with their equipment. As soon as the boat had docked, the three writers jumped onto the pier with intense fervor, Grimmjow lagging behind, his backpack and duffel bag hanging lamely on his shoulders.

By the time he had caught up to the others, Nel had already started greeting the stranger in a bear hug, Grimmjow having to rush to pry her off when the girl started to have trouble breathing. When he was finally able to separate the two, the smaller one looked incredibly disoriented, and Grimmjow allowed himself a small snort before shoving Nel a safe enough distance away. This did nothing to deter her chipper mood, however, because as soon as the other had recovered, Nel clamped her hands onto her shoulders and leaned in with widened eyes.

“You must be Yuzu, right? I’m Nelliel, but feel free to call me Nel! It’s so nice to meet you! You must have heard about us before we arrived right? We’re here to take a tour of your town for our next big project! I can’t wait for all the great things you have to show us!”

At this point, Grimmjow was starting to feel a little bad for the girl/Yuzu, probably having no prior knowledge and no way to prepare for his partner’s invasiveness and boisterous attitude.

“Stop your damn hovering, Nel. Not everybody likes it when you suffocate them in your massive fucking tits.”

Nel shot him a dirty look, as if to say  _ watch your language mister,  _ but backed off nevertheless. After being relieved of the heavy weight, Yuzu looked significantly less tense and returned the greeting with a small smile.

“Hehe, no worries. Karin-chan tends to run her mouth at home sometimes too so this isn’t anything I haven’t heard before. Feel free to speak however you feel comfortable with. Oh, and it’s nice to meet you too, Nelliel-san. Who are the three you brought with you? I heard mentions of a group but I wasn’t informed of any names.”

Yuzu turned her attention to the three men on the pier, with Pesche and Dondochakka finally having calmed down enough to pay attention to the conversation. Grimmjow flashed Nel a triumphant smirk, which was answered with her sticking her tongue out, neither gesture going unnoticed by their guide, who only giggled at their childish antics.

“Ah, these are my coworkers, Grimmjow, Pesche, and Dondochakka! Grimmjow does all the photographing, while the other two help me with my journalism.”

Grimmjow held out a hand, which Yuzu shook firmly, while the other two just bowed along with their greetings, which she also returned. 

“It’s nice to meet all of you!”

Now acquainted, Yuzu led the small group down the rickety pier and towards the other end of the beach. Behind the thick layer of trees was a small dirt path winding deeper into the foliage. At the beginning of the road stood a black jeep wrangler, it’s windows and roof removed and nowhere to be seen. 

“Wow, Yuzu-chan, is this yours?”

Nel ran the rest of the way to the vehicle and proceeded to gawk at every inch of its surface. Even Grimmjow let out a low whistle with raised eyebrows while the other two hurriedly whispered back and forth, stealing glances at the car as if they couldn’t be caught looking too long at its unusually pristine surface.

“Oh! No no no.”

Yuzu’s cheeks had flushed from embarrassment, and her hands were waving about in front of her cherry tinted face.

“This is the family car. Tou-san uses it when he needs to buy supplies from the city and run the occasional errand for Urahara-san, but that’s about it. Karakura is small, so you can pretty much walk wherever you need to go, so very few people besides us have one. Actually, I think we might be the only ones, even.”

Nel had scrambled over the dark frame and was now seated in the trunk, leaning over the edge with bright eyes.

“But that means you know how to drive, right? Wow, that’s so cool Yuzu-chan!”

Grimmjow let out a small snort and rolled his eyes.

“Didn’t take you to be the lawbreaker kind, pipsqueak.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Nel’s face scrunch up in frustration, but before she could reprimand him, Yuzu pivoted to face him and beamed.

“Well, there isn’t exactly a law to abide by if it never existed in the first place.”

Nel looked akin to the surprised Pikachu face, while Grimmjow only grinned and ruffled the girl’s hair.

“I like you more than Nel already, kid.”

Yuzu giggled at the affectionate treatment, her snickers harmonizing with the sputters coming out of Nel’s mouth as she tried to fully process the latest jab at her expense. 

“Wait, but then if what you said is true, then does that mean the normal laws of Japan don’t apply here?”

This time, it was the normally sidelined Pesche who spoke up, his face cocked to the side in question, and his hands poised with his pen and overflowing notepad like any responsible journalist.

Yuzu was only able to shrug in response.

“To be honest, I’m not really sure how it works. If you wanted clearer answers, you’d probably be better off asking Tou-san or another one of the adults here. All I know is that officials don’t really bother coming here since we’re pretty much a self-sufficient village, except for the occasional supplies trip we make to the city maybe once a month. I’m not even sure if we pay taxes. I think we’ve just been here for so long that the government just decided to leave us alone.”

As Yuzu spoke, Nel had slowly started to deflate a little.

“But if you only leave once a month for supplies, then does that mean you’ve never traveled outside of the island?”

To her dismay, Yuzu shook her head. But instead of seeming forlorn and wistful, the girl only beamed brighter.

“Nope! And to be honest, I’m not sure if I ever want to. I know it might seem weird to city folk like you, who grew up and live with access to everything (no offense), but I have everything I could ever need here in Karakura.”

“But what about friends? Don’t you ever want to meet new people?”

“I can understand where you’re coming from, but not really. I have lots of friends here! I have Tou-san and Karin-chan and Ichi-nii, along with Jinta-kun and Ururu-kun as well as the others at Urahara Shoten. Ichi-nii’s friends are also nice to me, and Orihime-chan is always willing to hang out with me whenever she comes over. Maybe it’s because they’re all I know, but they aren’t easily replaceable for me.”

Nel continued to pout, but refrained from any further debate.

“Alright, if you say so, but just know that I’m here now, and I wanna be friends too, so don’t leave me out, ok? And you speak about these people so highly, it makes me want to meet them! As long as it’s not another Grimmjow. I’ve been stuck with him for an entire month and I can’t take any more.”

“Oi, what did you say about m-”

Nel’s neatly manicured hand clamped around his mouth, stifling any oncoming argument, her blue claws digging into his cheeks, leaving threatening red welts.

“Do we have a deal, Yuzu-chan?”

“Ok ok, Nelliel-san. You can let Grimmjow-san go now.”

And with that, Nel’s hand dropped from Grimmjow’s mouth, but not before wiping his saliva over his face, much to his well-voiced complaint. She extended her clean one towards Yuzu, who shook it with enthusiasm.

“Unfortunately, if you want to meet my friends that means we must load up the car first. So you might want to get out of the trunk, unless you’d like heavy luggage piled on you.”

With some grace, Nel slid out onto the road, her boots kicking plumes of dirt around her.

“Alright! Dondochakka, could you please get my bags? They’re by your feet and I don’t have the energy to walk around to retrieve them.”

Grimmjow rolled his eyes at the woman who had been bouncing off walls not even five minutes ago and moved to load his own bag into the trunk. When Yuzu offered to take his backpack, he shook his head and waved her off.

“I’m gonna sit in the trunk, it’ll be better for taking photos anyways. Have Nel and them sit with you, their better conversationalists than I am (probably why they’re the writers and I’m not).”

“Alright, if you say so, but just know that the road can get a little bumpy at some spots.”

“I’ll be alright, stop worrying so much.”

He patted her head and nudged her to where the others were standing and climbed into the trunk, shoving bags out of the way to create a nice little seating arrangement for himself. He unzipped his bag and fished out the smaller of the two cameras inside, turning it on and letting it adjust to the light.

Once they were all inside, Nel sitting shotgun and Pesche and Dondochakka in the passenger seats, Yuzu started the car and they were on their merry way towards the village. Compared to the size of the vehicle, Yuzu looked almost comically small, her head barely peeking over the hood of the car and her hands covering only a fraction of the steering wheel. The two ladies in the front held an enthusiastic conversation the entire ride over the crunch of the road, with the two assistants chiming in every couple of exchanges as well. 

Grimmjow, however, was not having such a pleasant time.

Yuzu had not been lying when she had warned him about the ride being bumpy. The car jostled every few yards from the jutting rocks. That didn’t mean Yuzu was a bad driver, the road would have been a sure challenge for even the most experienced. If it weren’t for his years of experience and high-quality camera, all of his photos probably wouldn’t have even turned out halfway decent. In other words, absolute shit.

“Son of a bitch.”

The warm coppery taste of blood filled his mouth from where his tongue had been bit on impact. He stole a quick glance to see if Nel had caught his swear, and thankfully she hadn’t, because she was still happily chatting away with their guide at ten miles a minute. Admitting defeat, Grimmjow resigned his camera back to the safe confines of his bag and covered the lens. He had a whole week at his disposal to take photos, during which he would probably find better locations.

As he zipped up his bag, the edges of buildings started to peek through the gaps in the trees. A tan archway appeared over the road as the rocky dirt slowly transitioned to a well-smoothed street. As they pulled into the village, residents cleared the path so the car could pass through. Some waved towards Yuzu, but most focused their attention on the new coming strangers in the Jeep with her, the unusual hair tones and eccentric clothing standing out amongst the crowds. Small children peeked from around their mother’s legs, stopping their street games to stare with wide eyes. Grimmjow was used to the stares (blue wasn’t exactly common, even in Tokyo), but these weren’t people he could just flip off whenever they pissed him off. So he sat with a surprising amount of calmness from someone sitting in a packed trunk while being watched by a crowd of people. Nel on the other hand didn’t seem bothered in the slightest by the sudden attention (probably even reveling in it) and continued to share stories with Yuzu, sometimes even waving towards children caught staring at her chest a little too long.

After winding through a few blocks, Yuzu pulled into the driveway of a two-story building, a large sign hanging in the front that read KUROSAKI CLINIC in bold letters. Rectangular pots of flowers sat in the front under the blinded windows, blooming with little pink flowers that littered petals all over the driveway. 

One by one they exited the car, and made their way up the driveway to the wooden door, leaving their belongings in the trunk. Yuzu fished out a ring of keys from her dress pocket and flipped through them, stopping when she reached a silver key and unlocked the door with a soft click. The door swung open with little resistance and she led them into the house, taking her sandals off in the doorway, with the rest following suit. She walked into the living room and motioned for them to stay in the foyer, and called out to the quiet house.

“Tou-san, are you home? I brought our visitors!”

Her normally quiet voice reverberated on the walls and echoed in the empty hallways. It was eerily silent, and Yuzu raised her hand to call again when a large figure in the most unsightly orange shirt came flying out from one of the corridors, large tears streaming down his face.

“YYYUUUUZZZZUUUU!”

The man glomped onto his daughter, his large figure almost swallowing the girl whole, and hugged her in a vice grip, his tears and snot running onto her clothes and face.

“I was so worried about sending you off all on your own! You didn’t get hurt anywhere, did you? There weren’t any bad men that tried to take advantage of my precious daughter, right? No one Daddy has to track down?”

Grimmjow snorted at the overly dramatic man acting way too protective of his daughter, who was now trying to wriggle her way out of his embrace.

“No, Tou-san, everything was fine. You didn’t forget I brought visitors with me, did you?”

The man stopped his affectionate cuddling to stare at the four strangers who were just brought into his house with a steely calculating gaze very unlike the man that had just been crying ten seconds earlier. Grimmjow repressed the small shiver that climbed up his back and could see Pesche visibly breaking out into sweats out of the corner of his peripherals. Before the poor journalist could fully disintegrate, however, the man softened up into the jello-y pansy of a man he had seen just the minute prior.

“Oh! Yes, yes, I remember! You must be Nelliel, correct? I’m Isshin, Yuzu’s father. Remember, we talked on the phone quite a few times.” 

Like the ever dedicated diplomat she was, Nel enthusiastically stepped up to introduce herself and the rest of the group.

“Yes, of course, I remember! It’s so nice to finally meet you Isshin-san! Thank you for being so kind to help us with our trip. I’m so excited to see what this town and your people have in store for us!”

“You can drop the honorifics, Isshin is fine. While you're here, feel free to make yourself at home! My house is your house!”

“Thank you so much, Isshin, your kindness is greatly appreciated!”

Grimmjow had to resist the urge to gag at the current set of exchanges that were so sticky sweet, the words clogged his throat and made him want to choke. Before he drowned in the river of honey flowing out of Nel’s mouth, Yuzu grabbed his wrist with a sympathetic smile and led him away from the two ambassadors, blissfully oblivious that the room was now two people emptier. As soon as they were alone Grimmjow felt all of the confining pressure leave his chest and heaved a large breath, filling his lungs that had been crushed just moments ago.

“Sorry about that. We don’t exactly get visitors too often, and Tou-san gets easily excited by the smallest of things, so he might be acting like a shaken-up soda bottle for the next couple of days.” 

Yuzu looked up at Grimmjow with hints of embarrassment and apology, to which he only barked a deep laugh and ruffled her hair with a soft ‘pat’. 

“Don’t worry about it, pipsqueak. You think I’d be used to it and all, working only five meters away from Nel every damn day. I guess I had never prepared myself for the thought that there could even be two of her in this godforsaken world.”

Yuzu giggled as Grimmjow rolled his eyes with lots of dramatics, and joined her in imagining two identical Nels bouncing off walls with an endless amount of energy. He could barely survive one, how could he ever even bear the thought of two? Their chuckles echoed down the once quiet hallway, almost loud enough to drown out the two hyperactive voices still chiming in the living room.

Grimmjow had been the first to recover, but Yuzu, being the young girl she was, was seemingly having a lot more fun with her imagination, because it took her a lot longer than the male beside her to finally calm down enough to speak again.

“Oh, that’s right, I almost forgot! Karin-chan is out right now, but Ichi-nii should still be home. Why don’t we look for him in the meantime? Since it’s your first time here, you can look for him here on the first floor, and I’ll search in the rooms upstairs, ok?”

Without waiting for a response, Yuzu bolted in what Grimmjow could only assume was the direction of the stairs. Feeling completely lost and unsure of where to go, he started to wander aimlessly in the labyrinth of beige doors and hallways, peeking through each one only to be met with deafening silence. He didn’t even know anything about this Ichi-nii except for his nickname, Yuzu having ditched him without so much as an age or a hair color. So now he was stuck in a foreign house, looking for a man he did not know. Fucking fantastic way to start his vacation, that was for sure.

After getting himself lost for what felt like the seventh time, Grimmjow was about to call it quits until his sensitive ears picked up a soft sound: music. Finally exposed to something other than the muffled words tumbling out of Nel’s annoying mouth, Grimmjow circled his way back around the house, letting his senses lead the way. When the music had risen from a background lullaby to a whisper, he found himself standing in front of a sliding door that he could have sworn wasn’t there the last time he checked. With nimble fingers, he unlocked the latch and slid the rusty door open, the scrape of old metal shrieking in his mind. Slipping past the screen, Grimmjow found himself surrounded by a small stone patio, complete with a small tea party-sized table and five chairs. Flowerpots stuffed with bright colors scattered along the walls of the building, overgrown vines trailing green along the yellow boards. Beyond that was nicely trimmed grass, the lush green tickling his toes through his holed socks worn from years of travel. Focusing his brain back on the soft music that was now a lot louder, he turned around the corner that led to the only unexplored section of the house he was supposed to cover, and stopped right in his tracks.

Standing on the grass, in all of its ethereal glory, was the most beautiful entity he had ever laid his eyes on.

Periwinkle robes adorned with delicate peach designs swirled around red and white with a grace that could only be described as putting Aphrodite to shame. A well-defined figure with skin the color of porcelain danced on the soft grass, a soft ray of light adorning her features in a warm glow as the fabric defined her body, flowing around as if gravity didn’t even exist. Strings of beads and pearls crowned their head, accompanied with light pink flowers that bobbed on her head with every twirl. And the hair. Oh, the hair. Fiery orange the color of the bleeding sun burned into his retinas and etched itself into his subconscious. The deep red fans the same color as her cherry lips drifted in intricate patterns around her body to the hum of the soft flute music. 

She was beautiful.

He had only heard about them in Nel’s outlandish fantasy tales, but now he was certain this was what he was seeing.

A fairy.

The music slowed to a stop as the otherworldly creature stopped its graceful movements, Grimmjow almost letting out a small whine, which was quickly silenced as soft brown eyes opened to meet his own blue ones. For what felt like an eternity Grimmjow stared, letting himself be lost in colors that held so much life, so much feeling, so much beauty. He wanted to reach out and touch her face, to stroke skin softer than clouds, to be whisked away into heaven by God’s two wings and to be left there, only to spend each day cradled in her warms eyes as she sang him into slumber. He wanted her.

Slowly, as if to not scare her away, he cautiously lifted his hand towards her, worried that she would disappear with the wind if he moved too quickly, and opened his mouth to speak.

“I-”

“Ichi-nii! Where are you?”

Grimmjow was roughly yanked out of his lovely stupor to the symphony of rusted creaks and nails on chalkboard, cringing at the harsh clamor that had replaced the soft melodies playing just seconds earlier. A brown head poked itself from around the corner.

“Ichi-nii, where are y-? Oh, there you are! I’ve been looking for you all over the place since I’ve gotten back! Oh wow, are you preparing for the festival? You even brought out the flowers and everything!”

The fairy had torn its wide eyes away from Grimmjow in order to address the small girl in front of her.

“Hey Yuzu. Sorry, if I had known you were coming back so soon, I probably would’ve waited until you got home. You know how it is, gotta make sure everything is intact, and that I haven’t rusted too badly out of shape. Have a reputation to uphold.”

Yuzu grabbed the red fans from her hands and rapped them on top of the orange locks with a pout.

“Don’t talk like that, I’m sure you were great. Anyways, you’ve been the best for as long as I can remember, so I bet you wouldn’t even need to practice to put on a great show.”

After her scolding, Yuzu had only just seemed to realize Grimmjow was standing there, in all of his dumbfounded glory.

“Oh, Grimmjow-san, you’re already here. I was just about to go get you.”

Grimmjow only gave her a slow nod in acknowledgment, his mind too preoccupied to see the concerned look she flashed in his direction. There was something wrong, something he couldn’t quite put his hands on. It had just come to his senses now, clouding up his mind and sending alerts to every corner of his brain. What could it have been? Was it the house? No. The yard? No. The fairy? No. Her peachy face? Couldn’t have been. The silken robes dancing in the sun? Yeah, right. The way her soft lips parted as caramel silky words spilled from her mouth in a voice more charming than any ange- wait. Sirens wailed in his ears over that last thought. What could have set him off? Caramel? Angels? The charming voice- WAIT THAT VOIC-

“Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, where the hell did you run off to this time?!”

Grimmjow’s detective quest was cut short by another rusted screech as a very pissed off Nel rounded the corner with steam pouring from her burning ears.

“Grimmjow, how could you just leave me like that in front of our host! You know how bad that makes us look, when one of our members just runs off without even so much as an introducti- oh, Yuzu-chan!”

Nel’s mood flipped like a switch, and her irate mood instantly melted into sunshine and rainbows at the sight of her newly proclaimed friend.

“Sorry, Nelliel-san, I was the one that told Grimmjow-san to come and help me find Ichi-nii, I hope that’s alright. Sorry if I caused any trouble for you.”

If Nel had been mad at Grimmjow, she certainly didn’t show any of that to Yuzu.

“No, no, Yuzu-chan, you‘re completely fine. Grimmjow here has a tendency to wander like a lost child sometimes, so I’ve got to always keep my eye on him.”

Nel shoved an unnecessary elbow into said man’s side, earning herself another halfhearted scowl. 

“Speaking of, is this the Ichi-nii you were speaking so highly about to me?”

At the mention of her name, the fairy blushed a rosy tint and bowed in a greeting.   
“Oh, um, you can just call me Ichigo. You must be Nelliel-san if I’m not mistaken. It’s nice to meet you. Sorry your first impression of me has to be like this, I had to practice for a festival, hence the fancy attire.”

And that’s when it had all clicked. The tall physique, the deep voice, the Ichi-niis. It was all fitting itself together in the only explanation Grimmjow could come up with.

“Oh, not at all, in fact, you look very handsome, better than I could ever pull off, at least.”

Nel pinched Grimmjow in the side and nudged his shin as a cue to introduce himself, but he was too traumatized to even register what she was doing. His inner walls cracked with the realization that his thirty second love was all a mistake, a lie, a misunderstanding. It had all flooded to him in a drunken rush, only to be yanked out in front of his hungry, pleading eyes, leaving him with nothing but an empty, aching soul.

He felt his legs start to weaken, and with one particularly hard shake from Nel, his knees gave out from under him and he collapsed onto the lawn below, startling cries from the people around him as he raised his shaking hands to fist his blue hair, straining so hard he probably even pulled a couple strands out. 

The fairy was a boy.


End file.
